Respect and equality Action Team off to good start

Posted on Friday, June 19, 2015

By Linda Scales

The Action Team responsible for implementing the recommendations of the University of Ottawa’s Task Force on Respect and Equality is now up and running. The 15-member team, co-chaired by Associate Vice-President (Student Affairs) Gary Slater and incoming SFUO vice-presidents Nicole Maylor and Vanessa Dorimain, met for the first time on April 20 and has started to act upon the report’s 11 recommendations to make the University environment safer and free of sexual violence.

The Action Team is made up of representatives from the student body, faculty, unions, task force and community.

A significant step forward for the Action Team will be the imminent signing of a memorandum of understanding between the University, the Ottawa Rape Crisis Centre (ORCC) and the Centre d’aide et de lutte contre les agressions à caractère sexuel (CALACS). In August and September, these two Ottawa-based organizations will provide sexual violence prevention training sessions to members of the University’s senior administration and other key groups on campus. Their objectives include dispelling the myths and complexities about sexual violence and explaining why victims do not report, as well as defining consent and educating participants about the University’s resources, policies and protocols.

The team is also planning to introduce the “Bringing in the Bystander” workshop to the campus community. This in-person prevention program, created by the University of New Hampshire, is based upon the concept that everyone has a role in ending sexual and relationship violence, including stalking. It is one of the few programs of its kind that has been empirically evaluated and found to be effective. The Action Team has received permission to translate the program into French before introducing it to campus this fall.

A public progress report on the implementation of the task force recommendations will be issued by the Action Team in the coming months.